Some people find the military victory generally unsatisfying, in that it is odd that Sauron gives up because Mordor runs out of orcs. The expansion remains likeable, so I offer a variant as a fix:

Instead of putting the defeated foes in one pile, each player keeps the foes that they have defeated in their own separate pile. This pile of foes represents the "experience" the hobbit has earned through defeating the foes.

Any time during a player's turn, they may decide to turn this "experience" into a tangible benefit. To do so, do the following steps:

1. First, the foes regenerate.

The player chooses two foe cards from their "experience" pile.

One card is placed on the bottom of the unrevealed foes deck.

The other card is placed rightmost in the line of active foes (all other active foes move to the left). The player may choose which card goes where.

2. Second, the player receives a benefit. They may do any one of the following:

• defeat the leftmost foe instantly without paying any extra cost (and the foe, like any other defeated foe, goes into the player's experience pile);
• take three shields from the bank and give them to any one player (including themselves);
• take the top two hobbit cards from the draw pile and give them to any one player (including themselves);
• heal any hobbit one space towards the light;
• take a life token from anywhere (including from another player) and give it to any one player (including themselves).

Players may do this at any time during their turn, even during the execution of another action.

[Note that the player choose the first option has an effect of "cycling" the foes -- the current foe is defeated, and a previously-defeated foe is now at the back of the line. The player could do this as many times as desired, but as their "experience" pile shrinks by one foe each time, they cannot do so indefinitely.]

There is no more military victory. If the unrevealed foes deck runs out and another foe should be revealed, all players must contribute an "experience" card towards a new deck (their choice of which card). This represents the hobbits' overconfidence at their military prowess.

At game end, players score 2 points for each foe in the experience" piles. Foes that have been regenerated do not count for points.